But your holy ones had very great light; And
those others, who heard their voices but did not see their forms, since now
they themselves had suffered, called them blest;

2

1 And because they who formerly had been wronged
did not harm them, they thanked them, and pleaded with them, for the sake of
the difference between them.

3

Instead of this, you furnished the flaming pillar
which was a guide on the unknown way, and the mild sun for an honorable
migration.

4

For those deserved to be deprived of light and
imprisoned by darkness, who had kept your sons confined through whom the
imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world.

5

2 When they determined to put to death the
infants of the holy ones, and when a single boy had been cast forth but saved,
As a reproof you carried off their multitude of sons and made them perish all
at once in the mighty water.

6

That night was known beforehand to our fathers,
that, with sure knowledge of the oaths in which they put their faith, they
might have courage.

7

Your people awaited the salvation of the just
and the destruction of their foes.

8

For when you punished our adversaries, in this
you glorified us whom you had summoned.

9

3 For in secret the holy children of the good
were offering sacrifice and putting into effect with one accord the divine
institution, That your holy ones should share alike the same good things and
dangers, having previously sung the praises of the fathers.

10

But the discordant cry of their enemies
responded, and the piteous wail of mourning for children was borne to them.

11

And the slave was smitten with the same
retribution as his master; even the plebeian suffered the same as the king.

12

And all alike by a single death had countless
dead; For the living were not even sufficient for the burial, since at a single
instant their nobler offspring were destroyed.

13

4 For though they disbelieved at every turn on
account of sorceries, at the destruction of the first-born they acknowledged
that the people was God's son.

14

For when peaceful stillness compassed
everything and the night in its swift course was half spent,

15

Your all-powerful word from heaven's royal throne
bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land,

16

bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable
decree. And as he alighted, he filled every place with death; he still reached
to heaven, while he stood upon the earth.

And cast half-dead, one here, another there,
each was revealing the reason for his dying.

19

For the dreams that disturbed them had
proclaimed this beforehand, lest they perish unaware of why they suffered ill.

20

But the trial of death touched at one time even
the just, and in the desert a plague struck the multitude; Yet not for long did
the anger last.

21

5 For the blameless man hastened to be their
champion, bearing the weapon of his special office, prayer and the propitiation
of incense; He withstood the wrath and put a stop to the calamity, showing that
he was your servant.

22

6 And he overcame the bitterness not by bodily
strength, not by force of arms; But by word he overcame the smiter, recalling
the sworn covenants with their fathers.

23

For when corpses had already fallen one on
another in heaps, he stood in the midst and checked the anger, and cut off the
way to the living.

24

7 For on his full-length robe was the whole
world, and the glories of the fathers were carved in four rows upon the stones,
and your grandeur was on the crown upon his head.

25

To these names the destroyer yielded, and these
he feared; for the mere trial of anger was enough.

1 [2] The difference between them:
God's distinctive manner of treating the Israelites and the Egyptians according
to their respective merits.